In the national and international news today: British hostage Norman Kember released; Brown budget "modest"; Mersey poet pulls out of controversial Rice gig.
A British peace worker who was kidnapped in Iraq is safe and well after being freed. Norman Kember, 74, was taken hostage last November while in the country working with Christian Peacemakers, an organisation created by a group of traditionally pacifist churches, including the Quakers. Mr Kember was rescued by special forces during an operation that also saw the release of two Canadian colleagues.
Chancellor Gordon Brown promised a £34 billion injection into education in yesterday's Budget speech. Mr Brown, tipped to replace Tony Blair as Prime Minister within a matter of months, promised to make children a priority. Tory leader David Cameron criticised him in Parliament after the speech, however, saying the speech was proof of a "big crisis" in the NHS.
"The health service didn't even get a mention," Cameron complained. "Cut through all the rhetoric and what we've got is a chancellor who has taxed too much, borrowed too much and is the roadblock to reform."
Liverpool poet Roger McGough has bowed to pressure from anti-war activists and pulled out as host of a concert to be held in honour of US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. Dr Rice, a senior figure in the Bush administration, will meet with an organised protest when she visits Liverpool at the end of this month. Conspicuously avoiding revealing his own political views about the situation in Iraq, Mr McGough said he had "no appetite for introducing an event that attracts anti-war protesters from London and divides rather than unites public enthusiasm locally."
The concert will go ahead at the Philharmonic Hall on Friday 31 March, despite calls from protesters for musicians and artists to boycott the event.
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